Ante Pavelić

Early life

Birth and education

Ante Pavelić was born in the Herzegovinian village of Bradina on the slopes of Ivan Mountain north of Konjic, roughly 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) southwest of Hadžići, then part of the Ottoman Empire occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His parents had moved to Bosnia and Herzegovina from the village of Krivi Put in the central part of the Velebit plain, in southern Lika (in today's Croatia), to work on the Sarajevo-Metković railway line.

Searching for work, his family moved to the village of Jezero outside Jajce, where Pavelić attended primary school, or maktab. Here Pavelić learned Muslim traditions and lessons that influenced his attitude towards Bosnia and its Muslims. Pavelić's sense of Croat nationalism grew from a visit to Lika with his parents, where he heard townspeople speaking Croatian, and realised it was not just the language of peasants. While attending school in Travnik he became an adherent of the nationalist ideologies of Ante Starčević and his successor as the leader of the Party of Rights, Josip Frank.

Health problems briefly interrupted his education in 1905. In summer he found work on the railway in Sarajevo and Višegrad. He continued his education in Zagreb, the home city of his elder brother Josip. In Zagreb, Pavelić attended high school. His failure to complete his fourth-year classes meant he had to retake the exam. Early in his high school days, he joined the Croatian Party of Rights as well as the Frankovci students' organization, founded by Josip Frank, the father-in-law of Slavko Kvaternik, an Austro-Hungarian colonel. Later he attended high school in Senj at the classical gymnasium, where he completed his fifth-year classes. Health problems again interrupted his education, and he took a job on the road in Istria, near Buzet. In 1909 he finished his sixth-year classes in Karlovac. His seventh-year classes were completed in Senj. Pavelić graduated in Zagreb in 1910 and entered the Law Faculty of the University of Zagreb. In 1912 Pavelić was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attempted assassination of the Ban of Croatia-Slavonia, Slavko Cuvaj. He completed his law degree in 1914 and obtained his doctorate in July 1915. From 1915 until 1918 he worked as a clerk in the office of Aleksandar Horvat, president of the Party of Rights. After completing his clerkship, he became a lawyer in Zagreb.

Political rise

During World War I, Pavelić played an active role in the Croatian Party of Rights. As an employee and friend of its leader Horvat, he often attended important party meetings, taking over Horvat's duties when he was absent. In 1918, Pavelić entered the party leadership and its Business Committee. After the unification of the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs with the Kingdom of Serbia on 1 December 1918, the Party of Rights held a day of public protest claiming that the Croatian people were against having a Serbian king, and that their highest state authorities had not agreed to unification. Further, the party expressed their wish for a Croatian republic in a program from March 1919, signed by president of the party, Vladimir Prebeg and Pavelić. At the 1921 local elections in Zagreb, Pavelić was elected member of the city assembly. In the name of the party, he contacted Nikola Pašić, the Yugoslav Prime Minister and member of the People's Radical Party, with the goal of weakening the Croatian Peasant Party (HSS), the dominant Croatian party in the interwar period.

Pavelić was a member of the Frankovci faction of the Party of Rights. Ivica Peršić, a Croatian politician from the competing Milinovci faction, wrote in his memoir how Pavelić's 1921 election significantly raised the standing of his law office in Zagreb – a number of rich Jewish clients paid him to obtain Yugoslav citizenship, and Pavelić subsequently started to make frequent visits to Belgrade, where he would procure those documents through his increasing number of connections to the members of the ruling People's Radical Party.

In 1921, 14 Party of Rights members, including Pavelić, Ivo Pilar and Milan Šufflay, were arrested for anti-Yugoslav activities, for their alleged contacts with the Croatian Committee, a Croatian nationalist organization that was based in Hungary at the time. Pavelić acted as the defence lawyer at the subsequent trial and was released.

On 12 August 1922, in St. Mark's Church, Zagreb, Pavelić married Maria Lovrenčević. They had three children, daughters Višnja and Mirjana and son Velimir.

Later Pavelić became vice-president of the Croatian Bar Association, the professional body representing Croatian lawyers.

In his speeches to the Yugoslav Parliament he opposed Serbian nationalism and spoke in favor of Croatian independence. He was active with the youth of the Croatian Party of Rights and began contributing to the Starčević and Kvaternik newspapers.

In exile

Pavelić held the position of the Party of Rights secretary until 1929, the beginning of the 6 January Dictatorship in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

According to Croatian historian Hrvoje Matković, after the King declared his dictatorship Pavelić's house was under constant police watch.

At this time, Pavelić started to organize the Ustaša (Ustaša – Hrvatski revolucionarni pokret) as an organization with military and conspiratorial principles. Its official foundation date was 7 January 1929. The Ustaša movement was "founded on the principles of racialism and intolerance".

Because of the threat of arrest, Pavelić escaped during a surveillance lapse and went to Austria on the night of 19/20 January 1929. According to Tomasevich, Pavelić left for Vienna to "seek medical aid".

Initial exile and trial

He contacted other Croatian emigrants, mainly political émigrés, former Austrian-Hungarian officers, who gathered around Stjepan Sarkotić and refused to return to Yugoslavia. After a short stay in Austria, alongside Gustav Perčec, Pavelić moved to Budapest.

In March 1929, the Ustaše commenced a campaign of terrorism within Yugoslavia with the assassination of Toni Schlegel in Zagreb. Schlegel was a pro-Yugoslav editor of the newspaper Novosti who was also a close confidante of King Alexander.

After establishing contact with the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization in April 1929, he and Perčec went to Sofia in Bulgaria. On 29 April 1929, Pavelić and Ivan Mihailov signed the Sofia Declaration in which they formalized cooperation between their movements. In the declaration, they obligated themselves to separate Croatia and Macedonia from Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia protested to Bulgaria. Pavelić was found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death in absentia along with Perčec on 17 August 1929.

Because of the Yugoslav verdict, on 25 September 1929 Pavelić was arrested in Vienna and expelled to Germany. Pavelić's stay in Germany was constrained by opposition from the German ambassador to Yugoslavia, Adolf Köster, a supporter of Yugoslavia. A friend of King Alexander, he did his best to prevent Croatian nationalist activity in Yugoslavia.

Exile in Italy

Pavelić left Germany under a false passport and went to Italy, where his family already lived. In Italy he frequently changed location and lived under false names, most often as "Antonio Serdar". Since he had been in contact with Italian authorities since 1927, he easily established contact with the fascists. In autumn 1929 he established contacts with Italian journalists and Mussolini's brother Arnaldo, who supported Croatian independence without any territorial concession. Pavelić created sympathy and understanding of Croats among Italians.

That autumn Pavelić published a brochure called Establishment of the Croatian State: Lasting Peace in the Balkans which summarized important events of Croatian history. The Italian authorities did not want to formally support Ustaše or Pavelić, to protect their reputation; nevertheless, the group received support from Mussolini, who saw them as a means to help destroy Yugoslavia and expand Italian influence in the Adriatic. Mussolini allowed Pavelić to live in exile in Rome and train his paramilitaries for war with Yugoslavia. In the Ustaša organization of 1929–1930, Pavelić's closest associates were Gustav Perčec, Branimir Jelić, Ivan Perčević and later Mladen Lorković and Mile Budak.

The Ustaše began with the creation of military formations trained for sabotage and terrorism.

With financial help from Mussolini, in 1931 Pavelić established terrorist training camps, first in Bovegno in the Brescia region, and encouraged the foundation of such camps all around Italy. Camps were founded in Borgotaro, Lepari and Janka-Puszta in Hungary. The Ustaše were involved with smuggling weapons and propaganda into Yugoslavia from their camps in Italy and Hungary. At the demands of Italian authorities, the camps were often moved. The main Ustaše headquarters was at first in Torino, and later in Bologna.

On Pavelić's initiative, his associates established Ustaše associations in Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazil and North America. Pavelić also encouraged publishing magazines in various countries.

The series of bombings and shootings by the Ustaše in Yugoslavia resulted in a severe crackdown on political activity as the state met terror with terror. Impoverished Croat peasants were hardest hit by the counter-terror, usually meted out by Serb policemen.

Assassination of King Alexander and aftermath

By killing the king of Yugoslavia, Pavelić saw an opportunity to cause riots in Yugoslavia and eventual collapse of the state. In December 1933, Pavelić ordered the assassination of King Alexander. The assassin was caught by the police and the assassination attempt failed. However, Pavelić tried again in October 1934 in Marseille.

On 9 October 1934, King Alexander I of Yugoslavia and French foreign minister Louis Barthou were assassinated in Marseille. The perpetrator Vlado Chernozemski, a Bulgarian revolutionary, was killed right after the assassination by French police. Three Ustaša members, who had been waiting at different locations for the king, were captured and sentenced to life imprisonment by a French court. Pavelić along with Eugen Kvaternik and Ivan Perčević were subsequently sentenced to death in absentia by a French court. That the security was lax even though one attempt had already been made on Alexander's life testified to Pavelić's organizational abilities; he had apparently been able to bribe a high official in the Sûreté General. The Marseilles Prefect of Police, Jouhannaud, was subsequently removed from office. The Ustaša believed that the assassination of King Alexander had effectively "broken the backbone of Yugoslavia" and that it was their "most important achievement."

Under pressure from France, the Italian police arrested Pavelić and several Ustaša emigrants on 17 October 1934. Pavelić was imprisoned in Turin and released in March 1936. After he met with Eugen Dido Kvaternik on Christmas 1934 in prison, he stated that assassination was "the only language Serbs understand". During his time in prison, Pavelić was informed about the situation in Yugoslavia and the 5 May 1935 election, in which a coalition of opposition parties was led by HSS leader Vladko Maček. Pavelić declared the election results as a "success of the Ustaše actions". By the mid-1930s, graffiti with the initials ŽAP meaning "Long live Ante Pavelić" (Croatian: Živio Ante Pavelić) had begun to appear on the streets of Zagreb.

After Pavelić's released from prison, he remained under surveillance by the Italian authorities, and his Ustaše were interned. Disappointed with relations between the Italians and the Ustaše organization, Pavelić became closer to Nazi Germany, who promised to change the map of Europe fixed under the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. In October 1936, he finished a survey for the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the Croatian Question (Croatian: Hrvatsko pitanje; German: Die kroatische Frage). According to Ivo Goldstein, the survey deemed the "Serbian state authorities, international Freemasonry, Jews and communism"’ as enemies and stated that:

Ustaše regime

Establishment

On 25 March 1941, Yugoslavia signed the Tripartite Pact, but two days later the government was overthrown in a bloodless military coup by opponents who were motivated by a range of factors.

Two days after the Belgrade coup, Mussolini invited Pavelić from Florence to his private residence in Rome, the Villa Torlonia; this was their first meeting since Pavelić's arrival in Italy. Pavelić was escorted by Matija Bzik, but Mussolini received only Pavelić. Acting Foreign Minister Filippo Anfuso was present during the meeting.

Pavelić and Mussolini discussed Croatia's position after Yugoslav capitulation. Mussolini was concerned that Italian designs on Dalmatia be achieved, and in response Pavelić acknowledged the agreements he had made earlier and reassured him. Pavelić requested the release of the remaining interned Ustaše, an Italian liaison officer was allocated to him, and the Italians also lent him a radio station in Florence so he could conduct late evening broadcasts. On 1 April 1941 Pavelić called for the liberation of Croatia.

On 6 April 1941, the Axis invaded Yugoslavia from multiple directions, rapidly overwhelming the under-prepared Royal Yugoslav Army which capitulated 11 days later. The German operational plan included making 'political promises to the Croats' to increase internal discord.

The Germans generally preferred to collaborate with non-fascists who were willing to work with them, and only placed out-and-out fascists in charge as a last resort. Croatia was no exception. The Nazis wanted any Croatian puppet government to have popular support, so that they could control their zone of occupation with minimal forces and exploit the available resources peacefully. The administration of Banovina Croatia had been under the control of an alliance of Vladko Maček's HSS and the mostly Croatian Serb Independent Democratic Party. Maček was very popular among Croats, had been vice-premier in the Yugoslav Cvetković government, was a supporter of Yugoslav accession to the Axis and had a ready made para-military force in the form of the HSS Croatian Peasant Defence. As a result, the Germans attempted to get Maček to proclaim an "independent Croatian state" and form a government. When he refused to cooperate, the Germans decided they had no alternative other than to support Pavelić, even though they considered that the Ustaše could not provide an assurance they could govern in the way the Germans wanted.

Prime minister

Pavelić agreed to name Prince Aimone, Duke of Spoleto, as King of Croatia to avoid a union with the Kingdom of Italy, but delayed the formalities in the hope of gaining more territory in return for accepting the new king. Aimone was officially declared King of the Independent State of Croatia on 18 May 1941 under the name of Tomislav II, and he appointed Pavelić as Prime Minister. In March 1942, Aimone succeeded his brother to become The 4th Duke of Aosta. However, the King's powers were purely ceremonial, to the point that he never even visited Croatia during his reign, but preferred to deal with his royal duties from an office in Rome. On 10 July 1941, Pavelić accepted the annexation of Međimurje by Hungary.

On 14 April 1941, in one of his first acts after assuming power, Pavelić signed the 'Decree-Law concerning the Preservation of Croatian National Property', which annulled all large property transactions made by Jews in the two months prior to the proclamation of the NDH.

He signed the Law-Decree on Protection of the Nation and the State on 17 April 1941, which came into effect immediately, was retrospective, and imposed the death penalty for any actions causing harm to the honour or vital interests of the NDH. This law was the first of three decrees that effectively placed the Serb, Jewish and Roma populations of the NDH outside the law and lead to their persecution and destruction.

On 19 and 22 April, the Ustashe issued decrees suspending all employees of state and local governments, and state enterprises. This allowed the new regime to get rid of all unwanted employees – "in principle this meant all Jews, Serbs and all Yugoslav-oriented Croats"

On 25 April 1941, he signed into law a decree prohibiting the use of the Cyrillic alphabet, which directly impacted on the Serbian Orthodox population of the NDH, as the rites of the church were written in Cyrillic.

On 30 April 1941, Pavelić enacted the 'Law concerning Nationality', which essentially made all Jews non-citizens, and this was followed by further laws restricting their movement and residency. From 23 May all Jews were required to wear yellow identification tags, and on 26 June Pavelić issued a decree which blamed Jews for activities against the NDH and ordered their internment in concentration camps.

After the Italian capitulation

Following the fall of Fascism in Italy, Tomislav II abdicated as King of Croatia on the orders of Victor Emmanuel III. With the King officially gone, Pavelić assumed functions as Head of State of the NDH under the title of Poglavnik and appointed Nikola Mandić as new prime minister. Italy was later invaded and occupied by the Germans in Operation Achse.

As soon as the Italians capitulated in September 1943, Pavelić was quick to amalgamate Italian-annexed Dalmatia into the NDH and offer an amnesty to Croats that had joined the rebels. However, the Germans occupied the previously Italian-occupied zone themselves, including the mines and key agricultural areas. By November 1943, Pavelić and his regime controlled little of the territory of the NDH, and by March 1944 SS-Brigadeführer und Generalmajor der Waffen-SS (Brigadier) Ernst Fick observed that "In terms of power, Dr. Ante Pavelić is only mayor of the city of Zagreb, excluding the suburbs".

One of the key events in the history of the Independent State of Croatia was the Lorković-Vokić coup of 1944. Minister Mladen Lorković and army officer Ante Vokić suggested a plan whereby Croatia would change sides in the war and Pavelić would no longer be head of state in accordance with British demands. At first, Pavelić supported their ideas but changed his mind following a visit from a local Gestapo officer who told him that Germany would win the war with new weapons under development.

Pavelić arrested Lorković and Vokić along with others involved in the coup (some representatives of the Croatian Peasant Party and a number of Domobran officers). Lorković and Vokić were shot at the end of April 1945 in the Lepoglava prison. After plans for an "Anglo-American" coup were discovered, from September 1944 until February 1945, Pavelić negotiated with the Soviet Union. The Soviets agreed to recognize the Croatian state on condition that the Red Army had free access and Communists were allowed free rein. Pavelić refused their proposal and remained allied with Nazi Germany until the end of the war.

Genocide

As leader of the Independent State of Croatia, Pavelić was the main instigator of the genocidal crimes committed in the NDH, and was responsible for a campaign of terror against Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-Axis Croats and Bosniaks which included a network of concentration camps. Numerous testimonies from the Nuremberg Trials along with records in German, Italian and Austrian war archives bear witness to atrocities perpetrated against the civilian population. The NDH's racial policies greatly contributed to their rapid loss of control over Croatia as they fed the ranks of both the Chetniks and Partisans and caused even the Nazis to attempt to restrain Pavelić and his genocidal campaign.

In terms of the proportion of the state population killed by its own government, the Pavelić regime was the most murderous in Europe after Stalin's Soviet Union, Hitler's Germany, and outside of Europe has only been exceeded by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and some genocides in African states. As the main instigator of the genocide, Pavelić was supported by his closest associate Eugen Dido Kvaternik and Minister of Interior Andrija Artuković, who were responsible for planning and organization, and Vjekoslav Luburić, who executed the orders.

In late April 1941, Pavelić was interviewed by an Italian journalist, Alfio Russo. Pavelić stated that Serb rebels would be killed. In response, Russo asked him, "what if all Serbs rebel?" Pavelić answered, "We shall kill them all." Around this time the first mass atrocities occurred, the Gudovac, Veljun and Glina massacres, which were committed by groups of Ustaše under the direct command of Luburić.

Serbian, Jewish, and Romani men, women, and children were hacked to death. Whole villages were razed and people driven into barns, which the Ustaše then set on fire. Synagogues were also destroyed, most notably, the main one in Zagreb, which was completely razed. General Edmund von Glaise-Horstenau reported to the German Army Command OKW on 28 June 1941.

... according to reliable reports from countless German military and civil observers during the last few weeks the Ustaše have gone raving mad.

On 10 July, General Glaise-Horstenau added:Our troops have to be mute witnesses of such events; it does not reflect well on their otherwise high reputation ... I am frequently told that German occupation troops would finally have to intervene against Ustaše crimes. This may happen eventually. Right now, with the available forces, I could not ask for such action. Ad hoc intervention in individual cases could make the German Army look responsible for countless crimes which it could not prevent in the past.

End of the NDH

Seeing Germany's collapse and aware that the Croatian army could not resist the Communists, Pavelić started a move of his forces to Austria, causing several groups of tens of thousands of Croatian soldiers as well as civilians to start a major northward march without a clear strategy. Pavelić left the country on 6 May 1945, and on 8 May, he convened a final meeting of the NDH government in Rogaška Slatina. At the meeting, General Alexander Löhr informed the government of Germany's capitulation and handed command of the NDH forces to Pavelić. Pavelić subsequently named General Vjekoslav Luburić commander. Later that day Pavelić's convoy passed into the Soviet occupation zone in Austria, separate from the rest of the NDH government which went to the British occupation zone. The group made it into the American occupation zone and by 18 May arrived at the village of Leingreith near Radstadt where Pavelić's wife Mara and their two daughters had been living after leaving the NDH in December 1944.

On 8 May, Pavelić ordered that the columns from NDH continue to Austria, and that they refuse to surrender to the advancing Yugoslav Army, instead planning to surrender to the British. However, they were instead turned back in the mid-May Bleiburg repatriations, and many were subsequently killed by the Yugoslav Army. The sheer number of civilians slowed down the retreat, made the surrender unfeasible to the Allies, and ultimately led to the belief that they were nothing more than a human shield to the Ustashe. For his abandonment of Croatian soldiers and civilians, later Croatian emigrants would accuse Pavelić of cowardice.

Several members of the NDH government were executed after a one-day trial in Zagreb on 6 June. Shortly after this, Pavelić moved to the village of Tiefbrunau closer to Salzburg. In September, American officials – believing the family were refugees and unaware of their identity – resettled them in the village of St. Gilgen. After St Gilgen, Pavelić stayed with the family of a prewar Macedonian revolutionary for several weeks before settling in Obertrum. Pavelić stayed there until April 1946.

Post-war

Italy

He entered Italy disguised as a priest with a Peruvian passport. Passing Venice and Florence, he arrived in Rome in the spring of 1946 disguised as a Catholic priest and using the name Don Pedro Gonner. On arrival in Rome, he was provided shelter by the Vatican clergy and stayed at a number of residences that belonged to the Vatican while in Rome, where he started to gather his associates. Pavelić formed the Croatian State Committee (Croatian: Hrvatski državni odbor) headed by Lovro Sušić, Mate Frković and Božidar Kavran.

Tito and his new Communist government accused the Catholic Church of harboring Pavelić who they stated, along with the Western "imperialists", wanted to "revive Nazism" and take over communist Eastern Europe. The Yugoslav press claimed that Pavelić had stayed at the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, while CIA information states that he stayed at a monastery near the papal residence in the summer and autumn of 1948.

For some time, Pavelić hid in a Jesuit house near Naples. In autumn of 1948, he met Krunoslav Draganović, a Roman Catholic priest, who helped him obtain a Red Cross passport in the Hungarian name of Pál Aranyos. Draganović allegedly planned to deliver Pavelić to the Italian police, but Pavelić avoided capture and fled to Argentina. The US never had any intention to have Pavelić extradited to Yugoslavia, even if they had known his location.

Argentina, Chile and attempted assassination

Pavelić arrived in Buenos Aires on 6 November 1948, on the Italian merchant ship Sestriere, where he initially lived with the former Ustaša and writer Vinko Nikolić. In Buenos Aires Pavelić was joined by his son Velimir and daughter Mirjana. Soon afterwards, his wife Maria and older daughter Višnja also arrived.

Pavelić took up employment as a security advisor to Argentinian president Juan Perón. Pavelić's arrival documents show the assumed name of Pablo Aranjos, which he continued to use. In 1950 Pavelić was given amnesty and allowed to stay in Argentina along with 34,000 other Croats, including former Nazi collaborators and those who had fled from the Allied advance. Following this, Pavelić reverted to his earlier pseudonym Antonio Serdar and continued to live in Buenos Aires.

According to Robert B. McCormick, the Vatican saw Pavelić as a man who had made mistakes but had fought for the just cause.

As for most other political immigrants in Argentina, life was hard and he had to work (as a bricklayer). His best contact with the Peróns was another former Ustaša Branko Benzon, who enjoyed good relations with Evita Perón, wife of the president. Benzon had briefly been the Croatian ambassador to Germany during World War II and had known Hitler personally, which benefited Croatian-German relations. Thanks to Benzon's friendship with Evita Perón, Pavelić became the owner of an influential building company. Not long after arriving he joined the Ustaše-related "Croatian Home Guard" (Croatian: Hrvatski domobran) organization.

At the end of the 1940s, many former Ustaše split from Pavelić because they believed that Croats, now under new circumstances, needed new political direction. Many who split from Pavelić continued to call themselves Ustaše and sought the revival of the Independent State of Croatia. The most well known of these separatists was the former Ustaše officer and head of the NDH concentration and extermination camp network, Vjekoslav Luburić, who lived in Spain. In Argentina, Pavelić used the "Croatian Home Guard" to gather Croatian political emigrants. Pavelić tried to expand the activities of this organization, and in 1950 founded the Croatian Statehood Party, which ceased to exist that year.

Death in Spain

Pavelić arrived in Madrid on 29 November 1957. He continued contacts with members of the Croatian Liberation Movement and received visitors from around the world. Pavelić lived secretly with his family, probably by agreement with the Spanish authorities. Though he was granted asylum, the Spanish authorities did not allow him public appearances. In the middle of 1958, he sent a message from Madrid to the Assembly of Croatian Societies in Munich.

He expressed his wish that all Croats unite with the goal of re-establishing the Independent State of Croatia. Some groups distanced themselves from Pavelić and others did so after his death. In his will, he named Stjepan Hefer as his successor as the president of the Croatian Liberation Movement. Pavelić died on 28 December 1959 at the Hospital Alemán in Madrid, aged 70, from the wounds he had sustained in the assassination attempt. He was buried in San Isidro Cemetery, Madrid's oldest private burial ground.

Honours

National honours

Independent State of Croatia: Military Order of the Iron Trefoil as Head of the Order, special class with cross

Independent State of Croatia: Order of the Crown of King Zvonimir as Head of the Order, Grand Order star and sash

Independent State of Croatia: Order of Merit as Head of the Order, Grand Order with star and sash

Foreign honours

Kingdom of Italy: Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, Knight Grand Cross

Kingdom of Hungary: Order of Merit of the Kingdom of Hungary, Grand Cross

Finland: Order of the White Rose of Finland, Grand Cross with sash

Nazi Germany: Order of the German Eagle, Grand Cross in Gold with Star

Slovak Republic: Order of the Slovak Cross, Grand Cross with sash

Spain: Imperial Order of the Yoke and Arrows, Knight Grand Collar

In popular culture

Harry Turtledove's short story Ready for the Fatherland is set in an alternate history where the Independent State of Croatia continues to exist in 1979. Pavelić is revered as the first Poglavnik and his image appears on the State's primary currency, but no further details are shared as to how his life played out in that timeline, which diverged from ours in February 1943.

In a 2015 Croatian comedy film National Hero Lily Vidić, Pavelić is portrayed by Dražen Čuček. The movie follows a group of Yugoslav partisans, led by a young poet Lily Vidić, who compete in the NDH's fictional talent show "Factor X" whose winner wins the chance to perform at the Pavelić's reception for Hitler. Partisans see it as an opportunity to kill both Hitler and Pavelić, and thus end WWII. In 2017, the movie was adapted into a theatrical play where Pavelić was portrayed by Boris Mirković.